The Decline of Christianity in Europe
The Decline of Christianity in Europe
The twentieth century was a time of great flux and anxiety in Europe as the supremacy of Christianity in Europe was being challenged by the fronts of biblical criticism, and evolution. According to Rev, Andrew Greeley, a social sciences professor at the University of Chicago, belief in God has increased in Russia and Hungary and decreased in Britain, the Netherlands, western Germany and France. Atheism thrives in eastern Germany, Russia, The Czech Republic and France. Interestingly though, most European countries report denominational affiliation. According to Dr Greeley, there was a time when people were more religious than they are now. Secularizers like to point to the decline as evidence that religion no longer matters. This is not true. Religion in a given country is affected by history, social structure and culture; and its affects on them. English historians recently have argued that Henry VIII was the first secularizer in that he replaced a religious society with an established church. With that in mind, what one sees in Great Britain could represent the endgame of Anglicanism. A culture without religion is bound for a future of chaos and loss of morality. Western academics have accepted the sociologists secularization thesis that asserts that intellectual advances and economic modernization leads people and nations past a need for faith, to a more enlightened and more secular mode of life (Greeley). Europe’s ongoing and increasing contempt for organized religion has been their prime example, while the growth of Christianity in countries such as Nigeria and China have been dismissed as a primitive stop on the road toward a godless society. Without a religiously based culture, moral principles cannot be grounded and social organizations cannot be legitimized. A culture that breaks away from authoritative religion and the concept of God breaks away from any possibility of absolute truth. This only
The twentieth century was a time of great flux and anxiety in Europe as the supremacy of Christianity in Europe was being challenged by the fronts of biblical criticism, and evolution. According to Rev, Andrew Greeley, a social sciences professor at the University of Chicago, belief in God has increased in Russia and Hungary and decreased in Britain, the Netherlands, western Germany and France. Atheism thrives in eastern Germany, Russia, The Czech Republic and France. Interestingly though, most European countries report denominational affiliation. According to Dr Greeley, there was a time when people were more religious than they are now. Secularizers like to point to the decline as evidence that religion no longer matters. This is not true. Religion in a given country is affected by history, social structure and culture; and its affects on them. English historians recently have argued that Henry VIII was the first secularizer in that he replaced a religious society with an established church. With that in mind, what one sees in Great Britain could represent the endgame of Anglicanism. A culture without religion is bound for a future of chaos and loss of morality. Western academics have accepted the sociologists secularization thesis that asserts that intellectual advances and economic modernization leads people and nations past a need for faith, to a more enlightened and more secular mode of life (Greeley). Europe’s ongoing and increasing contempt for organized religion has been their prime example, while the growth of Christianity in countries such as Nigeria and China have been dismissed as a primitive stop on the road toward a godless society. Without a religiously based culture, moral principles cannot be grounded and social organizations cannot be legitimized. A culture that breaks away from authoritative religion and the concept of God breaks away from any possibility of absolute truth. This only
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